1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an animation production apparatus designed to produce animations about actions of persons and motions of objects appendant thereon.
2) Description of the Related Art
So far, as a method of producing animations about actions of persons and motions of objects attendant thereon, there has been known a key frame technique in which several frames constituting keys of motions of appearing objects are drawn to produce moving images which complements motions among these key frames. In addition, there has been a simulation tool (ERGOMan; produced by DELMIA) which provides the meanings with respect to the motions among the key frames on the basis of the key frame technique and utilizes an MTM (Method Time Measurement) forming one of time analyzation technique to automatically set a time between the key frames.
However, these techniques are made to put frames or variations among the frames on an initial frame in time sequence and, hence, create a problem that, if at least one portion of the contents of the animation varies en route, there is a need to re-input all information related to the subsequent animation production.
The present invention has been developed in consideration of the above-mentioned problem, and it is therefore an object of the invention to provide an animation production apparatus, designed to produce animations on the basis of combinations of basic motions of moving bodies, which enables efficient and easy alteration of an animation after produced.
The present inventors have completed the present invention by taking note of the fact that there is a case in which the alteration does not subsequently exerts influence on the types of the basic motions, that there is a case in which there is no influence thereof on objects of motions and space coordinates, and that there is a case in which the key frames themselves are shifted in time sequence but the time between the key frames does not vary.
For this purpose, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided an animation production apparatus which makes a combination of basic motions each constituting a minimum unit of a motion of a moving body to produce an animation in which the moving body makes a predetermined motion in a virtual space in accordance with a predetermined motion procedure, comprising basic motion acquiring means for acquiring a type of each of the basic motions constituting the predetermined motion, spatial data acquiring means for acquiring spatial data forming positional information on an object, including the moving body, in the virtual space for each of the basic motions, key frame producing means for producing a key frame corresponding to each of the basic motions, motion time information acquiring means for acquiring motion time information including a motion time taken for each of the basic motions and a motion start time of each of the basic motions, animation producing means for producing an animation on the basis of the key frame and the motion time information according to a key frame method, animation information storing means for storing animation information including the spatial data and the motion time information in a state associated with each of the basic motions, and reusable information extracting means for extracting reusable information from the animation information for each of the basic motions at an alteration of the animation.
With this configuration, when a user alters the contents of the animation, it is possible to eliminate the need for re-inputting of all the information after the time of the alteration and to make the most of the animation information before the alteration, thus efficiently and easily enabling the production of an animation incorporating the alteration. In this specification, for example, in a case in which the moving body is a human body model which works in a manual fashion, the xe2x80x9cspatial dataxe2x80x9d also includes data such as a standing position, hand position and a posture.
In addition, according to the invention, the animation production apparatus further comprises work model storing means for storing the motion procedure, previously produced, as a work model, and the basic motion acquiring means acquires the type of each of the basic motions constituting the predetermined motion through the use of the work model.
Thus, when the user inputs necessary matters in producing or altering an animation, the input operation is easily and efficiently achievable.
Still additionally, according to the invention, the animation production apparatus further comprises basic motion judging means for making a judgment as to whether the type of the basic motion forming an object of alteration is related to a change of the spatial data, and the reusable information extracting means extracts reusable information on the basis of a result of the judgment in the basic motion judging means.
Thus, owing to the classification among the types of the basic motions, if the basic motion is not accompanied by the change of the spatial data, because of no possibility of variation in posture of the moving body, a decision can be made that the animation information before the time of the alteration is reusable basically.
Moreover, according to the invention, the animation production apparatus further comprises motion object judging means for, when an object of motion resides in the basic motion forming an object of alteration, making a judgment as to whether the motion object undergoes a change due to an alteration of the animation, and the reusable information extracting means extracts the reusable information on the basis of a result of the judgment in the motion object judgment means.
This is based on that a change of the motion object makes it unfeasible to reuse the animation information before the time of the alteration, and requires the re-inputting of all the information.
Still moreover, according to the invention, the animation production apparatus further comprises motion object position judging means for making a judgment as to whether a position of the motion object undergoes a change due to the alteration of the animation, and the reusable information extracting means extracts the reusable information on the basis of a result of the judgment in the motion object position judging means.
This is based on that a change of the position of the motion object permits the reuse of the name of the motion object and the relative position of a hand.
The above-mentioned respective means correspond to the concrete means to be described in an embodiment which will be described later.